This drawing/sculpture isn’t new (it’s from 1997), but it’s fantastic and is a great set up for the other paper-based items I'm excited to share with you this week. Tim Hawkinson drew this 96” x 144” drawing on paper by mounting it on rolls and drawing as he scrolled it vertically so only a three-foot window of paper was visible at any time.

His use of paper is sculptural, both in the process of making it and in the installation, as is the tip of the index finger containing the markers he used to make the drawing.

In Hawkinson's own words: "The imagery can be read as representative of the rise and fall of history's world powers, or as empires swallowing up diminishing ones and in turn taking their places. This drawing is akin to a timeline with no beginning and no end. It can also be read as a mapping of the internal structures of the human body (to include intestines, organs, and such). I originally saw this drawing as a scroll which could be read by following the images with one's index finger."

Like many working in animation today, I grew up obsessively drawing cartoons. It wasn’t until college, however, that I was introduced to the rebels at UPA.

Working in a style that came to be known as “limited animation,” UPA was formed in conscious contrast to Disney’s perfectionism. Their films embraced applying design to animation in wildly interpretive ways. So much of their language laid the foundation for the future field of motion graphics.

I like to think of iPad drawing apps like the various physical drawing tools. Just as an HB pencil responds differently than a piece of graphite, so it is with different apps. While many drawing apps try to replicate these physical tools, Flowpaper embraces the digital medium with physics based drawing.

Paper has taken the metaphor of your standard duty sketchbook and packed it up into a tight, fast, fun-to-use iPad app. You organize your work into different sketchbooks, which you can name and (within tight limits) customize. You swipe through books that have dimension and texture. Surely a list of titles or a grid of books would allow you to show more books at once, but hey, this works out just fine.